D&D 5E How to Conduct a Military Campaign/Crusade?

[Herosmith14]

So, I had an idea for a campaign that probably won't come to fruition for quite some time, but I thought it might be nice to gather advice. The basic concept is that it's rather Fire Emblem esc in the fact that you are amassing an army to use against the final opponent and has a lot more tactical options than the standard game. The party will have to negotiate, monitor intrigue, nurture tense relations, and generally play their cards right in order to have a sizable enough force to stand a fair chance against that of the final destination. I've been following another thread on here simple titled "War" for ideas and advice, but as of late that thread has ground to a halt.

The pieces of advice I am looking for relate to recruitment numbers from the various parties the group will come across, how to properly doll out experience, how to calculate combat for a large scale battle, how to manage army moral, how to manage the final encounter, etc.



For those interested in the campaign itself, here is the basic plot line(set in my own setting). An agent of a local kingdom has heard some rumors of Drow in the wilderness, and, not wanting to instill panic or draw attention, they are paying the party to scout out the situation, with engagement being discouraged, but it won't affect the payout. The party finds that there are indeed Drow in the valley, a whole colony, in fact, but they are followers of Ellistraee.

The dark elves, after some diplomacy, welcome the party, and the daughter of the current leader asks the party to help her with something. Their are other followers who are still in the central Drow city in the Underdark, as well as some of her family and friends, (eventually a stronger incentive will come to life that I haven't figured out yet.), and she and a chunk of the colony wish to go back down, free them, and possibly derail the current Drow matriarchy.

After that the party will go with the (good) Drow into the Underdark, gathering more forces along the journey, discovering stuff, and eventually confronting the (bad) Drow army.

I have made a rough list of the forces along the way that the party can (possibly) add to their army.

• The (good) drow militia (basic force)
• Any units the party can convince the local kingdom to lend to the cause
• A clan of Trogdolytes
• A cult of Kuo-Tao
• A colony of Myconids
• A militia of Imaskari
• A force from a Svirfneblin kingdom
• An army of Duergar
• An illithid arcanist(s)
• A(possibly multiple) band of mercenaries/escaped slaves
• (possibly) a tribe of pechs (they don't have 5e statblocks yet though :L)
• A group of Grimlocks
• They can attempt to tame any number of Hook Horrors, Darkmantles, Cave Fishers, and/or Cloakers they come accross

Obviously for a lot of these it would be fairly difficult to get them on board, and even then it would be a tense (and probably very temporary) alliance. The presence of one faction in your ranks could have positive or negative effects on your recruitment attempts with others, and you'll have to find a way to keep the army from tearing itself apart.

As you can see, I have tried to keep the army selection in theme with the Underdark setting I am going with. While I am planning on having varying a fluctuating difficulty in recruitment among the factions, it is going to be possible, if extremely hard, to get them all under your banner.

All right, let the punches come.

 

[Herosmith14]

Is any one going to reply? Please?


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[PrometheanVigil]

Is any one going to reply? Please?


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Ask for specific advice -- your question is very broad. If someone has an answer to give, have the time to write it and just plain feel like it, they will.

You mentioned diplomacy. Don't make that light, that should be integral to the war. You could play off the treacherous Drow factions (Elisatree, the agent etc..) against each other, using additional manpower from them to make fights with other factions easier (and turn on them once they've been whittled down by the fighting!). It would be good to involve several checks against this particular idea, offering Diplomacy, Bluff et al.

Any particular reason why the force makeup are what they are? Could you involved other races, factions, regiment types maybe?

 

[Herosmith14]

Ask for specific advice -- your question is very broad. If someone has an answer to give, have the time to write it and just plain feel like it, they will.

You mentioned diplomacy. Don't make that light, that should be integral to the war. You could play off the treacherous Drow factions (Elisatree, the agent etc..) against each other, using additional manpower from them to make fights with other factions easier (and turn on them once they've been whittled down by the fighting!). It would be good to involve several checks against this particular idea, offering Diplomacy, Bluff et al.

Any particular reason why the force makeup are what they are? Could you involved other races, factions, regiment types maybe?

First off, thank you for replying, and sorry if that last reply was annoying. This is the first really big post that I've put up in a while, and I forget that it will take a while for people to process and respond.

The campaign I'm trying to design is a rather heroic "unite the Underdark" adventure, so plotting to kick the feet out from under the various factions might not fit, then again, that's up to the players. Good idea, though.

Yes, I am stressing diplomacy. High Charisma is going to be helpful. I am thinking of having the current force compilation affect the D.C. For getting factions on board. I will also implement a tension tracker and table that I will roll on as time progresses, and the party will have to defuse situations, and possibly in some cases discourage a mutiny.

While I am open to suggestions for ad how to hammer that out, Specific advice I am looking for is how to conduct and track troop numbers (Do I use Siege Points? Story Cards? Other system?) and how to manage party combat in a large scale skirmish.

Again, apologies if that reply was a bit whiny. I will try to be more patient.


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[Al2O3]

I doubt that D&D is suitable for actual large scale combat. Some ideas for how to handle it:
1. Find a different game system that would suit the story and use it when large groups of troops fight. I'm thinking along the lines of Warhammer or actually finding a copy of chainmail or similar. I can't really suggest specifics.
2. Skip actual tactical combat and abstract success/failure to one roll of dice. E.g. the players send a group of soldiers on a mission. Figure out what might give modifiers, set a DC and make a roll.
3. The first actual idea I had assumes that the story is partly railroad. In that case you can take a look at Mass Effect 3. There are a lot of potential allies. Some of them may be mutually exclusive. All have some things they demand or need before joining, and they may join fully or partly. The demands and needs may include NPC bonds and flaws. Each contribute a victory score, and the final battle depends on the final score.

If you go with 3, make sure to explain the setup. In contrast to the computer game you also need to know the motivations of important NPCs and groups. If the players think of a way to recruit an NPC you need to know why it will or will not work or what makes the difference.

If there ends up being some kind of war council I would suggest checking with the players how much they are prepared to handle internal conflicts and prepare accordingly. Maybe they can recruit someone to handle the internal politics within the council and keep them happy.

Logistics is probably something you can make an asset as well, e.g. recruiting farmers and merchants to supply food and other important things to the army or a source of income for mercenaries. It could be a good reason to bring a bunch of NPC soldiers to slay an ancient dragon and use the entire hoard to get mercenaries/pay soldiers from the kingdom/get supplies.

Bonus points if the soldiers are from a surface faction which has to defend itself from both dragon and drow. They are happy to send a force to get rid of the drow threat once and for all, but can't really spare them unless the PCs help with the dragon first.

My last advice:
-Focus on the things the PCs do. Let them choose who to recruit and how to do it (based on NPC goals and personality).
-Use "Fronts" from dungeon world or similar to make sure that things happen even if the PCs do nothing or are busy elsewhere. Include opportunities for the PCs.
-Make the journey the important part. Gathering the army and taking it to the city sounds like the campaign. The climatic battle may be predetermined in many parts based on who's with them already, and the PCs get to focus on the last unsure points.
-Since the story requires that the PCs accept the quest to venture into the underdark with the Drow: start the campaign by telling the players the parts that you wrote here. Then ask them to make their characters and let them fill in why and how they did the things you described.

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